5 Reasons Why Flipboard Is A Swiping Success

Despite the humongous strides we have made in technology, social media and the manner in which we consume the endless supply of content available digitally, some actions remain hardwired in the human brain. Flipping through a magazine, for instance.

And, right there, is Flipboard’s sweet spot of success.

The ability to package vast amounts and variety of data into a neat, gorgeous, appealing app is what sets it apart. In a world inundated with content and apps that tend to curate it for the user, Flipboard still stands apart and ahead of the pack. Other apps like the aptly named Paper and Yahoo News Digest have all tried to give their unique twist to content, but fail to lure the reader with the visual and effortless reading that defines Flipboard.

Here are the 5 simple reasons for Flipboard’s flip to app success –

1) Retaining the charm of the magazine and newspaper reading experience:

With clear headlines, intuitive categorization and pixel perfect images coupled with the swipe feature, Flipboard has merged the best of the print and digital worlds. The intelligent use of editors and algorithms to channel the content according to user preferences and the magazine-like presentation gives the user more control on the topics and the entire experience is akin to reading a printed newspaper.

2) Reining in the content surge:

At its heart, Flipboard is a news aggregator. News, photos, videos, articles, blogs, links – from across a variety of social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and online publications. And this is not an easy task to accomplish, considering the sheer amount of content thats there. But through features like cover stories, clear headlines, personalized content curation, easy social sharing and intuitive search, Flipboard manages to restrain the wild-out-there content into manageable streams.

3) The lure of new content:

While Flipboard is a meeting of content from social networks, blogs, magazines, newspapers and other virtual sources curated solely on the users’ interests, it still offers the allure of fresh content. With the recent acquisition of Zite from CNN, Flipboard has the added advantage of a powerful recommendation engine to attract and retain users with fresh, tailored content on a daily basis.

4) The user experience:

With a user interface that has been the envy of many app makers, Flipboard has been a resounding success on this front. Browsing, searching, personalizing, subscribing to magazines – every action performed on the app is a lesson in user experience delight. Their signature flip is a natural and constant reminder of the thought that has gone into app design and layout.

5) User engagement:

If they say the success of an app lies in how many users come back to it, Flipboard is model example. What starts off as quickly perusing news digests invariably turns in to a hour long session ( sometimes more, based on my personal experience) of discovering new sources, interesting content and those shared by known social and professional contacts.

Gorgeous design, perceptive content curation and instinctual layout that brings harmony to the copious amounts of content – what more can an app user ask for? Sit back and read away !